HOPEFUL CONFIDENCE
Peter Chao
In the worst calamities, the human race has always searched out any hope of deliverance.
We scrabble relentlessly for a vaccine to rein in a virus that has devastated so many communities. Scientists have worked tirelessly to develop an effective and safe serum that appears to be available soon. That hope is inspiring new confidence going into a new year.
Hope is a cherished and persistent motivator of the human race.
In Jerusalem’s darkest days that followed its sacking by the Babylonians, God lifted the curtain of doom by declaring: “You say about this place, ‘It is a desolate waste, without men or animals, there will be heard once more the sounds of joy and gladness … For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before.’” 1 It was that promise that kept God’s people hopeful about their future.
The Christmas narrative rekindles hope for us as we try to make sense of a devastating year, and gingerly step into what we hope will be a new season. In our anxieties, we can be assured that:
1. God’s Purposes will never be Defeated
Isaiah could urge “Comfort my people” 2 in the wake of decimation and desecration of the Exile only because “Our God reigns!” 3 The exclamation is echoed in Revelation4, giving hope to a poor, little, persecuted church hanging by its fingernails on the fringes of the Roman Empire. There can be hope in the darkest of situations only because God reigns, and His purposes will always be fulfilled.
God’s people are not meant for submissive docility, zombies frozen by fear. The powers of evil and disease do not have the final say how humanity will turn out. God does!
2. We Can Move Beyond
Because God reigns, Israel can move beyond the constraints of captivity. Because God reigns, we too, can move beyond our present anxieties:
Beyond Sadness: Some are crippled by sadness because of loss.
Loss of a loved one, opportunity, possession or health. Loss brings a perverse alienation from others. We withdraw into a prison of gloom; we plunge into the doom of self-pity; we writhe in the anguish of desolation.
But, Advent reminds us that our God reigns! Just as He brought Israel back from captivity and rebuilt them, He can do that for us too. Just as He cleansed them from all their sins, God can forgive us too. We can move beyond sadness.
Beyond Fear: When we are gripped by fear, we lose hope. We dare not move forward when we are paralyzed by failure. Our future looks grim because of our past. But, because God is in control, we can move beyond fear. Christmas reminds us that because God reigns, we can move into our future with confidence.
3. The Ultimate Hope
Just as hope in the Old Testament anticipates the first Christmas, that First Advent looks forward to the Second Coming of Christ. That ultimate hope inspires our confidence today.
It is embedded in the human psyche that the world as we know it is headed towards some cataclysmic end. There will be a Day of Reckoning when all the injustices in life will be righted, when evil will be punished, when righteousness will prevail.
When we are gripped by fear, instead of being apprehensive and fainting from terror, we can lift up our heads because our ultimate redemption is drawing near! We live today in anticipation of that day. We are to encourage each other to hope for that final redemption. Because it is easy to lose heart, we need to live in community to keep the flames of that hope alive.
The Emperor penguins live in community that allows them to breed, incubate and raise their young. They clump together in huge, huddled masses. They take turns moving to the inside of the group, where they are protected from the icy cold temperatures and wind. Once they are warmed up, they take their turns back on the circle’s edge, giving fellow penguins time in the warmer center. That is how the Emperor penguins survive. Living in isolation from others can only result in extinction.
Jesus warns, ‘Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap … Be always on the watch and pray that you may be able to … stand before the Son of Man.’ 5
Anticipating our ultimate hope gives us strength to weather existential adversities, recover from relational fallouts, and overcome unexpected failures.
The embers of such hope can only be kept afire when stoked by others in community. As the familiar carol reminds us,
Long lay the world in sin and error pining / Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices / For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn
For on that Night Divine, our fearful dismay can be turned to hopeful confidence.
—
1 Jeremiah 33:10-11
2 Isaiah 40:1
3 Psalm 97:1
4 Revelation 11:15
5 Luke 21:34, 36
MINISTRY HIGHLIGHTS
Peter’s Ponderings resumed with a third season online with Peter Chao reflecting on “Renewing Gratitude” in November, followed with “Hopes and Fears” in December.
This online forum enabled viewers from different countries to join.
The new format facilitated participants to share their struggles honestly and receive encouragement from the testimonies of others. We were reminded that Jesus is bigger than all our troubles and fears.
As each facilitator summarized their group’s sharing, it was often peppered with quotes from Scriptures, which I found particularly encouraging as every verse was so apt and applicable. As we listened to each other, we could identify God’s faithfulness, steadfast love and comforting presence.
Indeed He is the same yesterday, today and forever and His love has been poured out to all of us in the same manner, no matter where we are.
Peer Leadership Forums are accountable communities for our Eagles Leadership Development Program (ELDP) cohorts, facilitated by our faculty/mentors. They meet monthly online as friendship groups of 4-6, to provide spiritual and emotional support and discuss pertinent issues candidly. The purpose is to encourage them to make impact in their businesses and ministries as salt and light during these challenging times.
Presently we have 6 forums with 29 of our ELDP participants. As Jason Ong, a business owner and an ELDP 2021 participant, writes gratefully, ‘We have such meaningful conversations.’
UP NEXT
Explore selected psalms that will encourage our hearts, stir our minds and draw us closer to God in praise.
Believers have been drawn to the Psalms because the Psalms express their feelings – both positive ones like joy and hope as well as negative ones, like despair and fear. But the Psalms cover more than emotions. They may be inspired by personal experience but they contain important teachings about God and how to lead a godly life.
The course will include the first three psalms as they lay the foundation for understanding the whole book of Psalms. Some favourite psalms will also be appreciated in a new light. For example, Psalm 23 as the “filling” of the “psalm sandwich” comprising Psalms 22, 23 and 24. These and other psalms have been selected to stretch our minds, stir our hearts and draw us closer to God in praise.
Register here
HOPEFUL CONFIDENCE
Peter Chao
In the worst calamities, the human race has always searched out any hope of deliverance.
We scrabble relentlessly for a vaccine to rein in a virus that has devastated so many communities. Scientists have worked tirelessly to develop an effective and safe serum that appears to be available soon. That hope is inspiring new confidence going into a new year.
Hope is a cherished and persistent motivator of the human race.
In Jerusalem’s darkest days that followed its sacking by the Babylonians, God lifted the curtain of doom by declaring: “You say about this place, ‘It is a desolate waste, without men or animals, there will be heard once more the sounds of joy and gladness … For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before.’” 1 It was that promise that kept God’s people hopeful about their future.
The Christmas narrative rekindles hope for us as we try to make sense of a devastating year, and gingerly step into what we hope will be a new season. In our anxieties, we can be assured that:
1. God’s Purposes will never be Defeated
Isaiah could urge “Comfort my people” 2 in the wake of decimation and desecration of the Exile only because “Our God reigns!” 3 The exclamation is echoed in Revelation4, giving hope to a poor, little, persecuted church hanging by its fingernails on the fringes of the Roman Empire. There can be hope in the darkest of situations only because God reigns, and His purposes will always be fulfilled.
God’s people are not meant for submissive docility, zombies frozen by fear. The powers of evil and disease do not have the final say how humanity will turn out. God does!
2. We Can Move Beyond
Because God reigns, Israel can move beyond the constraints of captivity. Because God reigns, we too, can move beyond our present anxieties:
Beyond Sadness: Some are crippled by sadness because of loss.
Loss of a loved one, opportunity, possession or health. Loss brings a perverse alienation from others. We withdraw into a prison of gloom; we plunge into the doom of self-pity; we writhe in the anguish of desolation.
But, Advent reminds us that our God reigns! Just as He brought Israel back from captivity and rebuilt them, He can do that for us too. Just as He cleansed them from all their sins, God can forgive us too. We can move beyond sadness.
Beyond Fear: When we are gripped by fear, we lose hope. We dare not move forward when we are paralyzed by failure. Our future looks grim because of our past. But, because God is in control, we can move beyond fear. Christmas reminds us that because God reigns, we can move into our future with confidence.
3. The Ultimate Hope
Just as hope in the Old Testament anticipates the first Christmas, that First Advent looks forward to the Second Coming of Christ. That ultimate hope inspires our confidence today.
It is embedded in the human psyche that the world as we know it is headed towards some cataclysmic end. There will be a Day of Reckoning when all the injustices in life will be righted, when evil will be punished, when righteousness will prevail.
When we are gripped by fear, instead of being apprehensive and fainting from terror, we can lift up our heads because our ultimate redemption is drawing near! We live today in anticipation of that day. We are to encourage each other to hope for that final redemption. Because it is easy to lose heart, we need to live in community to keep the flames of that hope alive.
The Emperor penguins live in community that allows them to breed, incubate and raise their young. They clump together in huge, huddled masses. They take turns moving to the inside of the group, where they are protected from the icy cold temperatures and wind. Once they are warmed up, they take their turns back on the circle’s edge, giving fellow penguins time in the warmer center. That is how the Emperor penguins survive. Living in isolation from others can only result in extinction.
Jesus warns, ‘Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap … Be always on the watch and pray that you may be able to … stand before the Son of Man.’ 5
Anticipating our ultimate hope gives us strength to weather existential adversities, recover from relational fallouts, and overcome unexpected failures.
The embers of such hope can only be kept afire when stoked by others in community. As the familiar carol reminds us,
Long lay the world in sin and error pining / Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices / For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn
For on that Night Divine, our fearful dismay can be turned to hopeful confidence.
—
1 Jeremiah 33:10-11
2 Isaiah 40:1
3 Psalm 97:1
4 Revelation 11:15
5 Luke 21:34, 36
MINISTRY HIGHLIGHTS
Peter’s Ponderings resumed with a third season online with Peter Chao reflecting on “Renewing Gratitude” in November, followed with “Hopes and Fears” in December.
This online forum enabled viewers from different countries to join.
The new format facilitated participants to share their struggles honestly and receive encouragement from the testimonies of others. We were reminded that Jesus is bigger than all our troubles and fears.
As each facilitator summarized their group’s sharing, it was often peppered with quotes from Scriptures, which I found particularly encouraging as every verse was so apt and applicable. As we listened to each other, we could identify God’s faithfulness, steadfast love and comforting presence.
Indeed He is the same yesterday, today and forever and His love has been poured out to all of us in the same manner, no matter where we are.
Peer Leadership Forums are accountable communities for our Eagles Leadership Development Program (ELDP) cohorts, facilitated by our faculty/mentors. They meet monthly online as friendship groups of 4-6, to provide spiritual and emotional support and discuss pertinent issues candidly. The purpose is to encourage them to make impact in their businesses and ministries as salt and light during these challenging times.
Presently we have 6 forums with 29 of our ELDP participants. As Jason Ong, a business owner and an ELDP 2021 participant, writes gratefully, ‘We have such meaningful conversations.’
UP NEXT
Explore selected psalms that will encourage our hearts, stir our minds and draw us closer to God in praise.
Believers have been drawn to the Psalms because the Psalms express their feelings – both positive ones like joy and hope as well as negative ones, like despair and fear. But the Psalms cover more than emotions. They may be inspired by personal experience but they contain important teachings about God and how to lead a godly life.
The course will include the first three psalms as they lay the foundation for understanding the whole book of Psalms. Some favourite psalms will also be appreciated in a new light. For example, Psalm 23 as the “filling” of the “psalm sandwich” comprising Psalms 22, 23 and 24. These and other psalms have been selected to stretch our minds, stir our hearts and draw us closer to God in praise.
Register here